Spider-Man Episode 12: Transformation to a Splendid Murder Machine

Our wall-crawling hero dives deep into the fashion world as murder and intrigue lie at every turn. Just how did a no-name ordinary girl catapult to the top of the catwalk? How does the head of a Middle-Eastern syndicate tie to all this?

Outside an Interpol building, a black car pulls out and two men exit it, Amazoness dressed in her noir-ish clothing is the driver. By now, you’d think the Iron Cross Army would have other people doing this, but them Ninders can’t be trusted. A guard at the front gate asks for ID but is killed on the spot. The two men arrive on the Eighth Floor and reach a jail door with some special sensors. An alarm is sounded, and Interpol Agents rush to kill the interlopers, who die in their Ninder forms. Professor Monster, upon learning the news of their latest operation, is not happy that Interpol has developed a defense mechanism that tracks the body temperature of whoever enters the building.

The next day, a fashion show by hotshot Hiroshi Togo is undergoing preparations for their big day. Hitomi is there, covering the story for Weekly Woman, and Takuya actually has a job this time, working as her assistant. He’s to busy looking at all the models to hold the flash properly. As they walk downstairs for a break, a young woman approaches them, asking to see Togo. They take her upstairs, and the designer casually blows her off, and Takuya tries to comfort the girl, telling her to come back after the show. Later, the woman does get her change, and once again she is blown off, as he speeds away in his fancy American car. Takuya and Hitomi arrive to see the girl all alone but have to leave all of a sudden. On Sunday, Takuya has to show up at the marina for a swimsuit shoot. He complains, but if he doesn’t work, how will he fix the bike?

Yikes, is he even trained to wield that?

The young woman mopes alone at the highway crossing, until a woman approaches, talking about the callousness of men. It’s none other than Amazoness, dressed fashionably once again. Apparently, the young woman was a big supporter of Togo in his fledgling days, and now that he’s all rich and famous he discards her like a piece of old cloth. She asks Amazoness who she is, but the villainess responds with an offer to take revenge on those who wronged her. There is a way to win Togo back from the supermodel Yukata Obana, and that is to become more beautiful than her. The young woman is taken to the Iron Cross Laboratories where Professor Monster gives her a facial reconstruction, while secretly making her a cyborg. A mind control device is placed inside her ear, and after a a few days, she is up and ready for Amazoness’s plan.

Pretty soon, she is sent to kill the model Obana at her apartment. Still dressed in her wrappings she leaps up with the force and sound effect of Kamen Rider and invades the flat. She opens the door, and the model is shocked by the sight of a mummy walking out of her balcony. She gets strangled and then thrown off the side of the building, and the police are unable to solve this murder.

1970s Fan service

On Sunday, it’s time for the swimsuit shoot at the marina as a bevy of bathing suit clad babes bask in the attention of many a fashion photographer on this cloudy day. They could’ve done this at the beach, but I guess the crew didn’t want to leave Tokyo that badly. Surprsingly, Takuya isn’t struggling to keep up with these pretty women, but with how the young woman (named Minako) managed to become a top model in so short of time. This scene is chock full of pinups and what not, you’d wonder if they sold posters of her. At any rate, Minako is enjoying her newfound happiness with that shallow designer, Togo.

Takuya arrives home that evening, and Shinko has made his favorite, Beef Stew. It’s definitely a special occasion, as Takuya is finally not mooching off his sister, but now off his girlfriend. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to take a bite, as Special Agent Mamiya calls the young man on the ham radio, requesting to see him immediately.

Meet Kuroki

When Spider-Man arrives, a man in a dark suit and Mamiya are waiting for him. The man is called Inspector Kuroki and he’s played by none other than the Android Super Hero Kikaider, Daisuke Ban. Kuroki is a skilled agent who has worked in the Middle East for a few years and in that time managed to create a hefty list of the crime syndicates in the region. Spider-Man’s mission is this: to use his stealth skills to track Gill, head of the Menoh Syndicate, who arrived in Japan today. He is protected by a bodyguard who goes by the name Ban. Whatever their activities may be, it’s connected to Kuroki’s black list as well as the Iron Cross Army.

Later that night, Spider-Man attempts to search for the room housing Gill. He finds it, and sees Amazoness in a meeting with them. They are discussing how they should get rid of the supercop Kuroki, especially as he’s becoming a pain in the butt for either party. As Amazoness drives away, Spider-Man clings to the back of her car, living up to Takuya’s “hanger on” status.

How can he stay on like that?

Amazoness arrives at Juan Studio, where Minako is posing for the camera in a variety of outfits. After the shoot, the clad-in-black woman tells the model to kill Kuroki, while Spider-Man watches from a hole in the ceiling. The next day, Kuroki and his men arrive at the pool for exercise. While he takes his 25 laps, Minako is to find an opening to kill the Inspector, but hesitates. Later in the men’s bathroom, she sums up the nerve and comes after Kuroki with a knife. Spider-Man arrives, and tries to string her up, but the woman is too strong and yanks the rope. She attempts to make her getaway, by disabling the other officers, lifting one over her head like Samson.

Catsuit.

Minako confers with Amazoness and tells her she refuses to do the Iron Cross Army’s bidding. However, if she doesn’t, Amazoness will hand over photos of Obana’s murder to the police. Stuck in a tight situation, she agrees to make this her last job. Dressed in a tight leather catsuit, she rides a motorcycle over to Interpol, finding a way into the complex. She runs and leaps a la Kamen Rider to the rooftop and breaks her way in via a vent. She evades the sensors, as she’s only a cyborg not an android like the Ninders. Breaking open the vault, she obtains the Kuroki’s black list, and Spider-Man arrives in time to stop her. She gets away, but as she gets on her bike, Takuya tells her not to do this. It’s too late, as the control device forces her to meet Amazoness at an abandoned warehouse.

Gill and his bodyguard Ban are there and as they examine the contents of the folder, they realize they’ve been had! The Iron Cross Killer laughs at this success, revealing that he swapped the files before hand. Amazoness uses her remote and forces the cyborg woman to fight the spider man. A totally awesome fight scene happens, as Spidey struggles to fight a woman with basically the same strength and abilities as Toei’s other super heroes. It ends with the web-head disabling the control device with his web.

Gill and Ban attempt to get away, and Spidey chases after the two, clinging on the side of the car with all of his strength. The GP-7 is summoned, and using its machine guns, it disables the Middle Eastern boss’s car. Leaving him for Interpol, Spider-Man goes and fights the Ninder squadron in unspectacular fashion. I really feel that this is unnecessary, especially when they could’ve lengthened the previous fight scene.

Spider-Man decides to check on Minako, but finds her standing on the rooftop. She is dressed as she was in the beginning of the episode, and our hero pleads to the young woman not to jump. Minako realizes that as long as she lives, the Iron Cross Army will never allow her to live a normal life, and with what is left of her humanity, she leaps. Spider-Man tries to save her, but his Spider-String is apparently not fast enough him to do so. As he takes the young woman’s body to the hospital/morgue? our hero is once again all alone, and enraged at the fact that his sworn enemies have taken another victim.

I have to say, this has got to be one of my favorite episodes so far. It had everything, babes in bikinis, a guest star role from a famous Toei super hero, Middle-Eastern gangsters, and a fight with a cyborg woman?! I guess what made this episode worked as the fact that they didn’t need to use Leopardon, all they needed was a good riveting story that could use less filler. Maybe soon, they’ll focus mainly on the drama, and leave the Ninder fighting on the wayside for the monster episodes.